Predators And Civilians -- Wall Street Journal
An intelligence report shows how effective drone attacks are.
Several Taliban training camps in the Pakistan hinterland were hit last week by missiles fired from American unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, reportedly killing some 20 terrorists. Remarkably, some people think these strikes are a bad idea.
To get a sense of what U.S. drone strikes have accomplished in the past two years, recall the political furor that followed a July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which found that al Qaeda had "protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland [i.e., U.S.] attack capability, including: a safehaven in the Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), operational lieutenants, and its top leadership. . . . As a result, we judge that the United States currently is in a heightened threat environment." The media declared we were losing the war.
Less than a year later, then-CIA director Michael Hayden offered a far more upbeat assessment to the Washington Post.
Read more ....
My Comment: In my opinion, these predator strikes (supported by on the ground allies, spies, and intelligence agents) have been the most effective tool to use against our enemies in the frontier regions of Pakistan. If there is an alternative that is workable .... I am sure that many in our military and intelligence services would be interested, but at the moment there is none.
